Saturday, May 14, 2016

Darkness Flourishes at Vanderbilt U

In
case you missed the hoopla, I (Carol M Swain)
was almost run off the Vanderbilt University campus in 2015 by student
protesters and petitions denouncing me for bigotry and hatred. This was
related to an opinion
piece
I wrote for The Tennessean about the Islamic faith and the need for
Muslims to fully integrate themselves into our society. As a high
profile, black, conservative woman on the Vanderbilt faculty, I was a
conspicuous target.

At
Vanderbilt there apparently is “bad” spirituality (orthodox
Christianity) and “good” spirituality (Wicca, Buddhism, and Islam). An
example of “good” spirituality (by the University’s definition) is
manifested in Vanderbilt’s embrace of Wicca in August 2011, several
months after imposing its discriminatory policy toward Christian groups.

During my sabbatical last year, I became the target of harassment and a
petition demanding that I be suspended until I submitted to mandatory
sensitivity training. That’s a rather odd request of a first-generation
college graduate and a person who has overcome poverty, attained
tenured positions at Princeton University and Vanderbilt, and had her
research cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. My Christian faith, not my
race and gender, defines me. It shapes the perspective I now share with
you about Vanderbilt, where I have taught for the past 16 years.

[...]

The campus has been shaken by untimely deaths. So far in 2016 we have
had one current student (Taylor Force) and two former students (Justin
and Stephanie Shults) killed in separate terrorist attacks abroad just
weeks apart. Force died March 8 in a terrorist attack during, of all
things, a school trip to Israel. Two weeks later, the Shultses were
victims of the Brussels airport bombing.

That must defy any reasonable actuarial tables for one university,
especially one in denial about the threat of radical Islam. But there’s
more. In the last three weeks, two undergraduate students have been
found dead in their dorm rooms. One death occurred on April 22 (Cheryl
Alexandra Morris). Another student (Elliot Meister) was found dead on
April 27. We grieve the deaths of these young people and pray for their
parents and loved ones. Nevertheless, we wonder if more could have done
for Cheryl Alexandra and Elliot.

In a recent Tennessean cover story examining his now eight-year tenure
as the school’s top administrator, Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas
Zeppos touched on the deaths, saying, “It’s one of those things where
the loss is so heavy. For me as a chancellor to lose a child – it’s
really the worst thing to happen.”

That’s not all that’s happened at Vanderbilt in recent times. Going
back just a year or two, we can see where the University has witnessed
more than its fair share of tragedy and mishaps, to include the rape
case involving Vanderbilt football players. There’s even the quirky:
last year, a tree fell and injured several people in a group of
prospective students and their parents touring the campus. What are the
odds of a tree falling on visiting parents and prospective students on
an otherwise calm day? Note: it happened right outside the admissions
office. Only God knows if this means anything.